Game is essentially the same as the developers previous title, Gold premium currency can potentially offer too great an advantage early game, slight graphics issues when zooming in to the map

This week we took a little time out to check the new browser-based strategy game Call of War from Bytro Labs, a WW2 themed free to play RTS where players battle against each other trying to gather resources, build bases, raise armies and destroy each other. To check out the game and test run some of the features we were given 200,000 gold premium currency, worth around $50, and able to go on a little spending spree. With plenty of WW2 themed strategies out there we were interested to see what Call of War could offer that wasn’t already being provided by not only other developers but Bytro themselves, already serving up three similar strategy games including two World War inspired ones.

Logging in the game's graphics are extremely basic, cutting away the glitz and glamor for a more simple and clean interface which, whilst nothing particularly impressive, actually looks decent enough and works well and makes you feel like this is a strategy game. The tutorial is brief, pointing you to a few key elements and gameplay mechanics, but in general, the game is a more learn as you go experience with info buttons scattered throughout to learn more, and after a little clicking around we felt up to speed pretty quickly with what we could do.

When creating a new account and joining a server players are randomly assigned a country, in our case Sweden, with the entirety of Europe and North America is available. Each country has a number of provinces to it as per their real-world equivalent, with each province having a number of key traits such as resources, victory points, terrain features and more (see later). The most striking thing was how uneven the distribution of provinces is, which whilst totally making sense, seems as though some players are going to get wiped out if they start with somewhere small such as Switzerland or Denmark which have around three or four provinces, as opposed to somewhere like France and Germany with around two dozen or even USSR/Russia which has even more. Essentially what this means is that some players start with more places to build, which means being able to build a large army more quickly with each province only able to produce one military unit at a time. Whilst having a larger country will indeed mean more provinces to cover, players would have to be extremely bold to make a move on larger countries, whereas smaller countries could quite easily be wiped out very early in the game… though this is all just presumption and first impressions, who knows how games typically play out!?

Regardless, territory control is instrumental to winning the game, something that is an actual tangible goal as when a new world/map is created the game enters a new Round and begins at Day One hopefully filling all the countries with players so everyone starts at the same time, with AI taking control of any countries that aren’t filled after the first day (which isn’t usually that many). Upon key provinces are Victory Points, when players control these provinces they add to their total number of Victory points, which are the ultimate the road to winning the game.

The pace of the game is interesting, it’s definitely a thinking persons’ strategy and anyone in it for the instant thrill of combat will be sorely disappointed; producing units is a slow process requiring first and foremost the Research for a particular unit to be unlocked, the necessary building to produce it being upgraded to the right level, having the necessary resources and key resources (which are only available on certain provinces) and then finally spending time to produce them, with each province only able to produce one unit at a time (and each province requires the necessary buildings). Fielding an army actually capable of doing any serious damage takes a long time and lots of micromanagement as players aren’t able to queue without purchasing the High Command premium account option, which whilst not absolutely necessary it does definitely alleviate the time you need to speed continuously logging in to check how your nation is progressing.

As well as the above process and the general time it takes to actually produce a unit, the actual Research tree is gated, not just be the usually branched pre-requisites, but players can only research a specific tech from a certain Day in the round, meaning players can’t simply make a beeline towards the powerful units and that the pace of the game is controlled; it also prevents spending gold to get too high an advantage early on and unbalancing the entire game.

With the pretty high amount of Gold we had been given it was clear to see the distinct advantages purchasing premium currency offers up, even spending it pretty frivolously, with a little more wisdom, planning and patience that we’d imagine anyone parting with real money would have, it’s definitely easy to get an early lead, with our 200k of Gold we were able to purchase all the day 1 technologies, rush construct quite a lot of buildings and units that we wanted to simply see how they worked but wouldn’t be necessary early on. For $50 I’d dare say you could dominate most of your neighbours after a day or two, so it does put into question the “pay to win” aspect of the game unfortunately and whilst the gated Research technologies are a good step, we doubt it would curtail anyone who simply wants to win whatever the cost from being able to do so. We were able to put together a small force relatively easy that could have taken out most of our neighboring provinces and putting our rivals on the defensive very early on, being able to assemble an army capable of doing so in a two-hour playthrough could be enough to tip the advantage.

Fundamentally whilst the game is enjoyable for those that like strategic and competitive MMOs then the game at its core is pretty solid, being able to keep up to date with whats happening in the world using the global newspaper that documents all events is a really nice feature to make the world feel a lot more personal. None of this is a surprise though as the game pretty much follows the majority of the features from Bytro’s other war MMO Supremacy 1914 that is essentially the same kind of game but set in WW1, so as far as breaking the mould I think it’s fair to say that Bytro didn’t go above and beyond on this one.

Ultimately the game is interesting, definitely offers the strategy element, and whilst gold does give a big advantage I imagine that becomes less so in the later game unless you are prepared to drop hundreds on the game; if that’s the case then you’re probably not a very good player if you can’t get by without playing for free. Elements such as no queuing do feel like players hands are being forced to paying for the High Command premium account, making the default game quite hard to compete in without it, but isn’t necessary if you’re prepared to put the time into the game.

48 Comments - "Call of War Review"

I give the game 4/10. The strategy and battles are OK when they actually happen, and the maps are pretty cool. But:

1) The game is quite confusing to newbies, with questions going unanswered.

2) The ‘admins’ and ‘moderators’ lord over the same message boards with insane rules. No swearing is a fine rule, but they ban perfectly acceptable words (such as reich, nazi and fuhrer – in a WW2 game!) Add to this other arbitrary rules such as ‘one capitalized word per post only,’ ‘no foreign language’ and ‘no negative tones’ and you’ll begin to understand my confusion trying to wrap my head around their forums.

Sorry to nitpick on this but it’s fast becoming one of my F2P pet peeves. In just half an hour of watching the comms in disbelief I saw them ban seven people when only one did anything any reasonable person would deem ban-worthy: swearing. (One time. The word was ‘smartass.’) Other reasons I saw people banned: saying Hitler (again in a WW2 game, not defending Nazis or anything), posting jokes which the admins apparently didn’t realize were jokes, posting too many caps, and asking for help on the non-help board – SERIOUSLY? How small are these guys’ penises to act like this? The bans are only an hour long (apparently, I didn’t stick around the comms that long) but it seems pretty obvious Call of War has a particularly bad case of “I’m going to be an admin and demand people show me respect because in real life I get none!” which is common in all the worst F2P games.

3) Cheating is RAMPANT. The same admins/moderators all play the game themselves (indeed they chat about that a lot more than, say, answering newbies questions – of which there were many on the help board), and use administrative functions to alter game play and standings, even wiping entire AI armies off the map. Two of them even admitted to doing this to ‘make the game more fun.’ Uh, fun for YOU maybe. Obviously not to the newbies who were complaining about it and who would have to actually pay real money to keep up with the admins.

Bytro really needs to clamp down on this or they will face serious backlash from free and low-pay users.

4) When you sign up it starts a game and just puts you in it – you have zero choice over what map you play on, or which nation you are. (I quickly abandoned the game and found out you can start a new one of your own, but this was not at all clear at first.)

5) The game is SUPER slow. Like REALLY slow. For example, I was stuck in North America with only one neighbour. So I sent my armies to attack Spain. The travel time? 1 day and 17 hours. You read that right – ALMOST TWO DAYS. Just to MOVE. That’s an insanely slow pace. Then again I guess it gives the insecure admins plenty of time to troll the comms and ban anyone who dares to make eye contact 🙂

So this game gets a 4 out of 10, and it’s a kind 4 at that.

Sad, really. Like I said, the maps were really cool.

_Pontus_10/09/2015 at 15:25 -

@Review:

-> small countries like Switzerland could get killed easily, you say…
Well, a human player cannot play these small countries at all. You will net get them allocated.
There a number of AI countries that will always be AI (Switzerland, Belgium, Luxemburg, Portugal etc. etc.)

-> gold advantages: I won’t deny gold gets you speed ups, moral boosts etc and these can be extremely important.
However, if you need gold, you basically don’t get thegame and thus are most likely not a good player 🙂
A good pennyless player, especialy if teaming up with another, can wipe a moderate gold player off the map w/o much ado. It is about having the skill. Gold won’t save an average player vs a good F2P-player.
Unless … you are the unlucky neighbour of the gold spammer.

It is really F2P and that is really great (again!!) of Bytro.

Another good thing of Bytro: every player still alive and active on a map when it finishes earns his points in gold! So, even pennyless players can build up a gold-fortune to enter gold-maps or be a gold-spammer once in a while 🙂

-> game play: it is great for those, as you said, not looking for the faced paced war action.
People who loved to p[lay the old board games like A&A and World at War 1942 will recognize a lot and love this game.
The good thing of the slow pace: you can be gone for a day and mostly not have lost already (if you plan well).
The game is about dealing with your (different for every country and scenario depending) scarce resources, taxes, happiness of the population, etc etc while building up for war

Or, in my case: Blitz and conquer, so the resource and income situation improves fast.

Once the unlucky or bad players are wiped off the map, it becomes more complicated. Defences, research, planning and managing your empire requires some thought and time.

All in all, I love it as an addition to the older Suppremacy1914. It is different, though not that different, and definitely requires a different approach on many things as in s1914.
So, yes, Bytro did not outdo themselves to come up with a new game, but it is fun for people who loved or would have loved A&A.

_Pontus_10/09/2015 at 15:31 -

@Liana K:

As the review said: “The pace of the game is interesting, it’s definitely a thinking persons’ strategy and anyone in it for the instant thrill of combat will be sorely disappointed “

ad.1/confusing to newbies: sure… confusing… as confusing as a coffee-machine at the railway station, when you don’t read the instructions. And face it, you skipped your 1st game, so you missed out on the tutorial (which is your first game) and could have ‘tutored’ you through basic issues.
By skipping the tutorial, btw, you also missed the bonusses which help newbies discover the game more easily in their next games.

ad.2/chat: there you are right. the public chat is not .. uhm… the most attractive feature.
Mainly because of the 10-15yr olds though. Other players go alliance chat or private channels and don’t bother with public chat, where 1000’s of 1-day flies come spill their egos.

ad.3/Cheating: Liana, sorry, but I do not recognize anything you say about the admins nor their behaviour in games (actually: mods and game-operators/; or SGO’s and MA; but the latter you normally dont see in chat anyway), and I have been in CoW1942 a couple of games now (about10 or so).
Also, and more importantly:Never ever is it possiple for the admins (chat moderators and 1 level higher the game operators) to wipe out armies. They simply can’t. If anyone could alter a situation on a map, it is a much higher level person of the crew (super-G.O maybe or the Main Adminstrator). And these are maybe 2 or 3 guys who are not on the chat at all and only would do this to rectify a situation (i.e. a multy-accounter being removed from a map).
So, what you are claiming must be hear-say, because it is just highly irrealistic and basically impossible due to limited of rights of mods and GO’s.
BTW, I have been a mod and GO in s1914 (the WW1 title of Bytro) and know which rights mods and GO’s have. Did leave the crew for the petty mentality, but thát is not a special S1914 or CoW1942 issue; that is amongst all crews in every game (as you said corectly).

Further the game play:
ad.4/no choice : simply not true.
There are random maps and maps with country choice (and many more options). Use the search function if you only want to play maps with country choice allowed. This feature is determined by the player setting up the map, whether you can or cannot have a choice.

ad.5/speed of play: yes, the game is slow.
If you want a fast-paced game, neither Suppremacy1914 nor CallOfWar1942 are a good choice. Stuff takes time, as it is pretty much a RTS (as in Real Time…). So, heck, yeah, when you cross the ocean from USA to Spain, it takes time. If you go from Africa to Russia, it takles time…duhhh.
Or you would like to just be able to attack Madrid from Berlin and do that in 5 minutes? THEN: dont play this game. It is not for you.

Once you played a few games, you know which countries are nice (basically all have good features, but need to be played differently. I.e. I never-ever chose USA, no matter which scenario; It is safe, but far from the action, lacks oil etc. …as in reality!

Liana, I can only conclude you did not understand the game very well and didn’t take the time to learn it and that is a pity.
In fact, despite the slow-pace in general, if you play the game well, you will see that in battles you sometimes can’t leave the screen or you lose. This particularly being the case in naval and artillery battles or if you favour mobile warfare like me..
But, hey, you just send your troops to Spain and let them do the work, isn’t it? Well, sorry, that is ‘a’ way to play, but also the way to lose 🙂

… and get disgruntled!
…but blame yourself; not the game.

And afterall, maybe it is just not your type of game.

People who loved the old A&A board game or World at War ’42 wil absolutely love this though.

And the best feature: it is really F2P without major disadvantages.
Buying gold doesnt help you win per definition. A good pennyless player can kill a gold-noob and wipe him off the map. Done it a few times 🙂

Starburns13/09/2015 at 05:15 -

The positive, super-long reviews here are obviously written by an admin or someone from Byttro.

This game sucks.

Yes, they say it’s slow, but… it’s still slow. We’re still allowed to complain about it.

“Thinking person’s game?” Not when gold coin spending players just buy whatever they want, it makes any game they are in a no-contest, unless and until they stop spending coins.

You’re just saying whatever it takes to get people to play your game.

From what I saw in my 3 weeks trying to play and trying desperately to have a good time (but failing) people are leaving this frustrating game in droves. (At least, non-coiners.)

I agree with the bad review about the comms, they are really awful. Filled with BOTH idiotic posts by newbies and arrogant posts by moderators.

Not sure how much actual cheating happens but I do know it seems to be the number one complaint by players on the comms. Again, not sure it actually happens, but the cheat-finger has been pointed at admins many times.

The game play also leaves a lot to be desired. Takes forever to move anywhere and even when you get there there’s nothing to see… basically you park next to the enemy tank or man, then after a while (100% gradually drops to 0%) one of them disappears and if the attacker wins that “territory” changes to their color. That is literally all that happens in this game, and it literally takes WEEKS AND WEEKS to play ONE GAME.

Asking for help is also awful. When you ask on the help page, it goes unanswered. When you ask on the basic page, you get slammed (by those arrogant moderators) for not using the help page. Meanwhile they clog up the comms with almost non-stop posts about nothing anyone but their friends would care about (i.e. what they’re having for dinner, how work was, etc…) stuff that they threaten to ban other people for posting.

The game itself, game play, visuals, comms, moderators… they all leave much to be desired.

Can’t recommend this game at all.

Victor21/10/2015 at 05:40 -

Being a strategy game developer my self I couldn’t but just fall in love with the game I loved the pace giving you time to plan out your strategy. I thought that this would be like playing hearts of iron online. But I was wrong… Even thought the game presents a lot of strategic gameplay by combining nukes and gold you get all kinds of dissaster… Also the units are unbalanced in terms that an aircraft has 15 hp and a heavy tank 45 so missile strikes hardly work against high hp units. but bigger problem are gold spamers. There should be an option of allowing gold or not per game

Shawn15/11/2015 at 06:07 -

nothing wrong with using a little gold, we wouldn’t have these games if the developers didn’t get paid. However, bad players who buy victory do tend to kill games (or at least the fun sometimes). I suggest that whenever FTP or players without loads of cash see a player obviously spending tons of gold (and you can spy them out) I think punishing them by every country putting one sabotage spy on them would be a solution available to the average players.

i would advise every player of COW to do that, it’s the one weapon poor people have available to them.

redacted25/11/2015 at 01:59 -

this game is evolving and balancing of the complex tech tree and mix of units if ongoing.

its worth a check [hearts of Iron fans will enjoy] but a word of warning…..

The staff have no reliable leadership to speak of and as such the community side of the game is fairly toxic.
support is poor and the attitude of the senior staff [such as a really rude guy called james13t] will destroy your confidence in their ability to deliver good service.

recommend joining one of the player run alliances and avoid the vile chatroom.

Mike Sorthaz27/11/2015 at 19:17 -

The game could be really good. To bad it isn’t. Unfortunately there is only one strategy to win, spend more gold faster than your opponents. Spend gold to buy more resources. Spend gold to build armies faster. Spend gold to upgrade your armies. Spend gold to heal your armies before and after a battle. Spend more gold to upgrade your cities fasters. You get the idea.

_Pontus_08/12/2015 at 22:40 -

It is just so typical to call me a crew member, because I am positive about the game…
Anyways, I am not a crew member, but who cares. What really makes the difference between me and many mant many thousends of long time players, is that I DO undertand the game, as opposed to the quick to give up complainers above.

Again:
1. it is a thinking person’s game
2. it is slow, but you need the time also
3. it is not graphically swooping you off your feet, but doesnt need that, because it is strategy game for thinking people
4. never-ever have i experienced that crew members cheat on maps they play, and from my experience as a former crew of s1914, that is NOT possible either
5. Gold cant buy you victory, unless you are already a good player or a dumb one with really a lot of cash.

and :
6. yes, james13t is an ass of a crew member. he is probably an 18yr old british kid that quit school at 14. he is rude, doesn’t know grammar nor spelling etc. but, heck, that is 1 crew member, and who needs them? for what?

Just give the game a chance and if you love true strategy (as opposed to the chinese money pits) you will love this game.
It is still not perfect – as s1914, whih exists a while longer – and certain things go wrong, but I see it as an extended beta period for now 😉

Now playing s1914 for many years and CoW since May this year. And not gonna quit anytime soon 🙂

david Soutter08/12/2015 at 22:48 -

Started the game about three weeks ago and agree with most of what is said. I have noticed that when not in combat units just vanish. At first I thought i had been attacked and just not noticed it then it occurred whilst i was watching the play. I have complained and nothing has been done or said other it was being looked into. Also money frequently does not get credited right away and there is no way of checking a record to see if it is up to date.

david Soutter08/12/2015 at 22:50 -

it also goes off line with no explanation like now

_Pontus_08/12/2015 at 23:00 -

you are right the servers being inaccesible right now. doesnt just happen in CoW though. As I said before, this game is …IMO… in extended beta.
If you like pure strategy, but can’t handle the bugs in Cow, which just still happen once in a while, I would suggest to play Supppremacy1914 for now. That is basically the WW1 version of this game.

What amazes me most about all the complaing though, is that none of you seem to realize that this is one of the very rare good f2p games and that, as such, you can’t expect the 24/7 service from a chinese money pit.
BTW, it seems there openings in the crew, so if you want to put your energy constructively into improving the game and service, join them. They are shorthanded, that much is clear.

farcry2117/12/2015 at 22:51 -

It`s full of buggs… admin don`t answer at question… iron hand on forum 🙂 i reported a bug 3 week but team dont answer …. Every week server will drop 4-5 hours without announce and after that they ask appologize.
Dont worth to play this buggy game.

farcry2117/12/2015 at 22:59 -

This game is led by inexperienced admins and law iron fist rule. Leadership Forum is terrible.It`s not provides answers just to collect money…

Sulamon20/12/2015 at 10:04 -

The game has been down for 5 hrs and the only advice management can give is ” have a cup of coffee and stop acting like 4 yr olds. You are obviously not European ”

Disgraceful behaviour and comments from the admin, considering many people they are pissing off are gamers who buy gold.

Agree with most of the comments, I cant recommend this game

Outger26/12/2015 at 23:32 -

I have played this game for a few weeks. I loved the game at first, but money is TO powerful in this game. Like david Soutter said, armys disappear (funnely enough always when you are at war with a high paying player).

I lost a 38 (pretty descent army) full blank to a 44 army, who lost nothing. In my opinion a bit strange..

_Pontus_ , gold can buy you victory in this game, how can you say you can’t?! You can infinitly buy and train units instantly.

Wy oh wy can’t I just pay 5/10 euro’s a month for this game and that is enough? No! Lets build something in the game where you can pay RL money for units, so you can win easely.

Disapointed and retired.

walter abramowicz31/12/2015 at 13:01 -

These types of games cater to mental illness especially if you have OCD. The bottom line is of course the money ( gold) in which you will be bombarded with gold sale’s all the time and the constant ad pop up’s every few minuets that take up 1/3 of the screen so you’ll be constantly closing them which is very frustrating and annoying . As for the game its very, very, very slow. with little or no reward for winning. The gold people would spend to get the early edge will never be compensated for what you win at the end. You’ll find most of the people quit after a few day’s so your left with computer players . Take a walk, get some fresh air and enjoy life. Avoid this game and others like it. You’ll be glad you did.

bagts06/01/2016 at 16:51 -

how can i delet m account

Cow25/01/2016 at 04:05 -

Avoid.
Moderators will knock you out. Even when you bought and spent gold.
They are so obtuse. No humour there, publishing in World Herald is no more part of war tricks. The gold spammer under attack, just complains of mocking newspaper. They’ll take as proof your Newspaper articles. Dare joke or mock gold abuse and you are kicked from a game. Yes, that roud you invest 3 months of buildup plus 30 $.
For your health, Avoid.

Scott27/01/2016 at 05:47 -

Love love love this game. You can play political, military, economics and espionage sides all at once and game play is easy. I really like that the game takes a long time to play, rather than simply sending troops here then there then there in a matter of moments to defeat someone. You have time in this game to send units to attack, realize the enemy force is too big, and then retreat. You have to spend time researching new units. The only complaint would be at the start of each new game, give each player a little bit of gold, rather than none.

lolo88403/02/2016 at 20:35 -

I do not recommend this game, administrators stole me more of 700,000 goldmark valor is $130 real money … so, if you play please, don’t buy anything !

WayneVan03/04/2016 at 16:18 -

The game is terribly slow. Gold rules the game and you are not even allowed to mention that in chat OR private messaging.

The Admins are PC crazy. Role playing NOT allowed by their political correctness.

Play something else.

GreenDevil12/06/2016 at 01:01 -

Game got alot worse with the popup ad that hides the maps and centers itself in the middle and does not go away. I have to refresh the browser or close the whole window and restart up the game just to get rid of this. Greedy bastards ruined a good game that had flaws but was one that was good for making one maove a day.

Oceanhawk18/06/2016 at 17:38 -

Thats an awful review, it doesnt even describe the game, and got its facts Wrong, Denmark, is an AI nation, nobody plays as it. And you can pick you nation, just join another round and select.

This review isnt great, and turns people off, what is actually a great game, and the best RTS game I have played

Urbscholar19/06/2016 at 02:40 -

This game was going to be good. But it’s not. I am the type that supports the game-makers by spending money in game, judge all you like.

Just had a game that literally lasted weeks (it’s still going). If you go inactive for 2 days (which is easy to do because the pace of the game is deliberately slow, which I think can be a good thing) then the admin can replace you with another player.

Weeks into a game that I’m doing pretty well in, my main ally left me a note that he would go inactive. I would help to cover his area while he was gone. Imagine my surprise when he was replaced and immediately switched to the other coalition.

I don’t care if someone mocks my gold usage, that’s all fair. I DO CARE A LOT when someone takes advantage of my gold usage by rigging the game. I spent more than any other person in this thread did. Part of that is me being a sucker. But the other part is this is grossly unfair.

I expect hackers to be the cheaters in this game, not the people running it.

As for the PC stuff, that’s AOK with me. Kids play this game and we don’t need garbage discourse in the chats. Sure, it’s a bit much, but a minor annoyance as compared to taking my money.

Dark_Helmet25/07/2016 at 04:05 -

I play several other Free to Play games and this one just blows. In the games that work, in game gold can make it easier to play or get you unique units etc.
Here, in game gold means you research faster, produce faster, and never run out of anything. So if you play against anyone spending gold you will lose.
Pay to Win is all this is…Avoid this game…complete waste of time.
I don’t mind paying to have a better game experience (world of tanks, war thunder to name 2) but this game is just stupid to waste your time with.

Khaostorm29/07/2016 at 20:47 -

I have played the game(s) for over a month. Conclusion, unless you are a HEAVY Gold user (bought with real Money) the game(s) quickly become unplayable So if you have millions of real cash to Win at all cost, then this game is for you. The rest of us will keep looking for something more FAIR game to play

Atticus Finch30/07/2016 at 20:44 -

Sincerely, this game isnt bad at all… until you run into someone who is using multiple accounts. Now the game admins will kick most multi-account users with one exception… if they spend enough money… not gonna happen. 6 out of 10 overall, 2 out of 10 for integrity. Playing a map now where the entire map is against this guy who is using three countries. We all have spies everywhere in his provinces and can see the funnelling of resources over the course of the last week from two accounts into the main one. Reported the users multiple times over the last two weeks with no repsonse. Usually we get a response in 4 days or so after they research. We know this guy is coining to death, so the only assumption we all (and I mean every other active player on the map) can figure is they are ignoring it because hes spending big money.

Botox13/09/2016 at 05:17 -

This game has a moderator community that would permanently ban you for the very mention of the word ” Gestapo ” Anywhere in their chat rooms.

I have never seen this type of Policing or incompetence into seeing that Toxic community members report others for false breaking of Rules.

This game is Good otherwise. However the social aspect of it, is a Nightmare.

Call of War has a community that tolerates Islamophobia, however does not tolerate any criticism of its self. Hence, i’d say this community is pretty bad, even though some are very nice people.

Botox13/09/2016 at 05:20 -

Infact, there are cases of players multi accounting to destroy others through the use of different connections. Theres also cases of large scale pay 2 win tactics to destroy others via gold. Hence why the community is Toxic, because some would not mind joining your game, and spending 50$ on ingame money to destroy you out of spite because of a chat argument.

Its that bad. 🙂

Phildoe26/09/2016 at 21:25 -

If there were a single-player version that I could play at my own pace, this game would be perfect. Having adult ADD, I’m teetering on moving on, but love it so much. While civilization is turn-based, maybe this one should be too, but only for single player
‘

tatival26/12/2016 at 08:59 -

This game is no worth to play only lost off time and gold i can only laugh realy.The only maby good in this game is the world map but it is filled with bugs (awful).And finaly the only answer you becomes from the administrator is a copy paste answer realy …………. my rating for this game 2/10 and only why this team did the world map.

_Pontus_11/02/2017 at 18:48 -

Still giving this 9/10
More than a year after my 1st comment, I am still playing this game and enjoying it 🙂
– Many bugs that were there earlier on, have been resolved. In that sense calling it an extended beta at tha time was pretty accurate.
– Gold still doesnt help an average player win per definition (realy, first learn the game before wasting gold). But yes, there are people throwing a 100 or more bucks at a single map to win at all costs. Go to another map or form an allliance w/ another good F2P player against the spammer to resolve the issue.
– Any serious problem is apologized for by the staff and most often compensated w/ 5k gold or so. I build up a capital of over 30k gold from winnings and compensations.
– Chat environment still so-so.

My opinion remains:
– this is a great strategy game for anyone who loved or would have loved to play the A&A board game.
– when you learn the game, F2P is really truly F2P without stopping you from a high rank.For ease of play and comfort the relative cheap High Command premium is recommendable (and supports the development of the game).

Patrick24/03/2017 at 19:19 -

1/10. The admins are incredibly biased. I left a coalition because, well, the leader was being controlling asshole. I said, this is not fun for me, good luck peace and I’m faced with 30 messages in a row insulting me, not to mention the insults before I left and then nonstop articles written about me. I’m the one who gets censored and reported. Suck up to the moderators, it helps. Nature of the game is slow, tons of better games out there.

jim11/06/2017 at 23:54 -

its a F-N dude ruled by cheaters and hacks

Joe21/07/2017 at 21:30 -

1 / 10.
The game is fun, however, INTENSIVELY PAY TO WIN.
The mods will BAN you at any complaint against gold using members, who literally fight with their credit cards.

This is a WRONG practice in gaming / and game industry. It is Pathetic, Wrong, Unfair, and encourages blatant cheating, against people who spend their time, effort, days on end building and slowly working their way to supposed victory.

Screw this game, its moderators, and Bytro Company for this filthy system.

Mark27/07/2017 at 04:22 -

Horrible bloody game. Bugs all over the place- I attacked a stack of units with a bomber and an intercepting fighter killed my plane even though I was ahead in time vs intercept time,gold being used to speed up building/research and it gets spent but nothing happens, Cheaters everywhere and the admins let it go on and on. Lousy customer support. Third rate graphics and descriptions of the vehicles and no showing of the battles themselves- just a little bomb going off- big deal! The gold users pay to win- not strategy, and who pays the most will win the game. Spent time and money on this abortion- walking away from it. Like Joe said- screw the game, its moderators, and Bytro company for this piece of crap

Pete10/08/2017 at 06:32 -

This game is filled with cheaters and clones which simply try to make you spend gold (dollars).

There are many other games with fairer game play and management teams that take some pride in their product.

Lousy customer support is a big understatement – Piece of crap – getting close to the truth on that one : )

Run to another game

NameNotGiven19/08/2017 at 22:31 -

I would give this a 3/10

The game is to a large degree OK, However god forbid if you actually want to use the chat, The moderators are going to ban you for literally anything, They can ban you simply because they feel like it, if they give you an irrational warning and you try to dispute it, that’s a ban. I seriously do not recommend this game, Bytro labs does not care about or value their players/customers in any way or form. You’re going to get banned if a moderator feels like it, and you can’t do much about it.

The Almighty Jewbear28/09/2017 at 15:02 -

Greetings,

I am game staff for COW, and i wanted to help you guys shed some light on the game, first off, small nations like Denmark, are always AI, because of the small amount of provinces. Also, to help Liana, the game chat rules are pretty simple. To sum them all up, you must be polite, and the reason for certain names being banned, is because Bytro Labs is a German company, certain things are kept from being advertised in any form of way, good or bad, per the countries laws, (to my knowledge). The game is not only Pay To Win. I have defeated many gold users, it really does depend on how fluid you are with your tactic and how well you can adapt. If you guys have any more questions, please log in to the game, or the forum and dont be afraid to ask. Moderators and Game Operators (like myself) are always around to help.

boo13/10/2017 at 02:02 -

the almight jewbear is one of the worst mods in the game so dont listen to him cause he is just telling lies. the game is still full of bugs and the mods are worse then any nazi could ever possibly be. do not play this game its a waste of time unless you like being treated like a child by a bunch of hypocrites. if you play any game that germany is in the leader is adolf hitler but if you even mention his name you get banned, the chat filter is over the top and you cant say anything about the game making a complaint or you get banned. this is the worst game ive ever played on line and ive been playing games for over 20 years online. they go out of their way to promote the lies started by allied governments about hitler and the third reich and the mods cheat in games to try and make you buy gold.

jennings26/10/2017 at 20:39 -

this games is full of cheaters and liars first off they keep making one harder not to spend gold in this game I was told by a ex staff members mark bird the new rule that they made was to treat the people that spend money on the game better then the people who don’t the bugs don’t get fix because it helps there pets(players that brown noise them) out

yantopol30005/11/2017 at 19:43 -

2 years experience, level 50+.
First impression:good
After getting to know the community:fucked up.

I have been playing this thing for nearly 2 years.
Believe me when i tell you, the community is made out of newbs, and they stay newbs cause nobody gives a shit about answering their questions
Admins are HORRRBIIILLLEEE. Stuck up, hypocritical bastards, calling you 4 yr olds, and more into talking with people rather than answering the questions of newcomers. they actualy ignore them, and just keep talking.
Game is VERY slow, though it was fine for me.
when i started i liked it, especially the 25 player map. but i always lost. now just why is that?
realized that its a pay to win retarded fuck game with multi accounters. the only people getting banned are legitimate reasonable people on the chat, falsely accused.
Talking about communism is fine, spreading communist propaganda across the newspaper and chat is allowed. even though its a ww2 game, you say hitler ONCE and you get perma banned without warning. they expect you to read a fucking 5 page article about rules and fuckguidlines. i happen to be proficient in english, and i wont even read it. so they expect a young foreigner to read and memorize all those high class words. nobody even fucking know their meaning.
Nah they wont ban the cheaters, the multi accounters, the ones who spread damn COMMMUUNIIISSSMM on the game. theyll ban the legitimate, hard working, here-to-enjoy, authentic, quality, kind and most interesting people on earth. i had the pleasure of talking with so many interesting people, yet they were banned because of the fucking retarded rules and retarded moderators.
The last straw was finally broken when i been banned without warning for saying “the ting goes skrrraa(i know lmfao)”. it was 24 hours, but being tired of their shit i went all out and got deactivated on purpose. now im here, as a bastion of honesty, the guardian of legit players, i am here to urge you to not even think of playing it. if you’ve started quit this retarded shit. TWO years, and it has gotten worse over time. they got worse rules by the years, more imbalances, more crashes, and the community went crap as it went by, and if you look at steam you will see that what i write is not the review of an idiot who’se been banned and now wants revenge, no, im here for the following reasons.
1.)Save you from wasting your time
2.)Go against these retards
3.)Make less people join their playebase.
4.)Giving truthful reviews, so that you will not be swayed away by trashfuck lies.

More to the graphics mechanics gameplay and bugs:
Graphics:2/10, kinda trash, you could have atleast done more than just painting the land. and the units look shit.
Mechanics:3/10. idiotic mechanics, unable to retreat, therefore you cant utillize small armies. no use in navies since they will be gone overnight, trash sight range.
Gameplay:2/10, pay2win, with alot of gold users(premium currency), armies gone overnight, fleets gone overnight, rocket spams will just blow you up, its basically who gets to knock out who’s rocket factories first. no use in advanced units and tactics, as just steamrolling with artillery, anti tank guns and infantry is enough(they hole up in terrains which tanks cant touch them, basically only plains can be good for tanks, and very few plains), traitors EVERYWHEREEEE u just CANT trust ANYBODY. Oh right, you wanted to protect yourself from a coastal invasion? be prepared to cover your coastline with 10 times his ships, and one point will always get breached overnight, and he lands, leaving u unable to do shit with your navy.I also want to add this: they say you have over 100 units to use on the steam site. bullllshhiit. around 20 unit TYPES(e.g infantry, light tank, interceptor) with their own tech tree(upgrades to attack and defense values), and only around 10 will be put to use, as everyone spams them with a bit difference, the other 10 are never seen on the field. 100+ my ass.
Bugs 1/10:Planes go out of their flight range and to the edge of the world, borders between countries twitching, when a server error occurs, it doesnt notify you, so you continue ordering your troops for the night, come back in the morning, nothing moved.
chat bugs, and many other minor bugs which they know of for TWO YEARS. these bugs existed when i joined and exist beyond now.
Bugs being left unattended is why this is rated 1/10 instead of 3/10

Okay. So my review is going to be a lot different than other people here because I’ve spent over a year playing this game and there is little that I don’t like.
1.) Graphics: So the thing is, in this game, graphics DO NOT MATTER. Guys, you’re not frickin playing Call of Duty. You’re playing a real time strategy game where you move troops and build troops and talk to people. There isn’t a point for fantastic graphics.
2.) Community: While I agree that the community is flawed, I very rarely get bad moments in the global chat. The chat is actually a lot of fun and it’s a great place to discuss literally whatever you want while waiting for timers to finish.
3.) Mods: Most of the mods that are present in game and in chat are actually really good and are all around nice people and are not like what other people say.
4.) Backstabbing and Cheating: If you create your own games, you can enable an anti cheat function which eliminates every cheater in the game. On the subject of backstabbing some people need to grow up and stop being all butthurt because one of their allies turned on them. If you lose just join another game.
5.) Gameplay: I love the fact that this game caters to people who have busy schedules. On weekdays, I only check my games two to three times a day and thats usually just fine. This game is also not pay to win at all and I haven’t spent one cent on it.
Final Ratings:
Graphics: 6/10 (graphics are actually looking good at the moment)
Gameplay: 7/10
Community: 8/10
I honestly really enjoy this game and it became really popular in the school I attend.

NINJA PENGUIN05/02/2018 at 04:14 -

Cool game but very slow !!!!
Seriously tried to like it but it’s to bloody long.
Played many games in different scenarios in different start locations. Game will be a lot better if it didn’t take so long to move unit across maps.
6/10

Mhinerva14/02/2018 at 22:03 -

I have been playing this game for more than a year now.

As a summary I DO NOT recommend anyone to start playing it. Reasons:

A) Moderators & Gamemasters: The wrost and less caring GM´s I have EVER seen in any game (and I have played lots of games like WOW, LOL, EVE etc…).They do not try to re-balance games, but they sistematically ban peoplee who is angry about premium currency (“gold”) users (PAY TO WIN USERS)

b) basically if you are playing against a GOld user the game is OVER. you could have planned your defenses and invested in infraestructure to produce more resources but the Gold user will always win. End of the game.

c) Glitches, Bugs, Lag, slow charging page or refreshing troops because it is a web browser based game. When your country grows big, no matter how powerful your computer is, the game will absolutely test your patience.

d)multiaccount users and cheaters. LOTS of cheaters and players that play with more than one country to win the game. You can try to claim to gamemasters but they will rarely give you a positive reply, and will tipically answer “It is possible that they know each other in real life whether they be friends, family or co-workers.”

e) as a summary, my experience with this game is VERY NEGATIVE. I strongly advice players seeking to have a good time, to avoid this Call of War game at all costs.

Regards,

Mhinerva

David05/08/2018 at 09:48 -

Call of war in 2018? It still sucks today. The moderators and admins still cheat not just to win, but also to run up the revenue for the game. Its a questionable tactic but it does happen. Say you get in a game and start a war with someone who is an admin or a moderator. If they see that you do buy gold be warned, they will give themselves an excessive amount of resources and just slowly toy with you while to spend and buy gold. It is stupidly ridiculous and they have admitted to doing it. Saying they need the money to keep the servers up and keep the updates coming as they can not do it for free. When you are in games where an admin or moderator is not present, it is kinda fun, but again you never know who is an admin or moerator so… its play at your own risk.

Edwin06/01/2019 at 13:38 -

I agree with all the reviews here in this page about COW. I have been playing this game for the past 2 months and found it to be interesting and somewhat very well developed. Yet, it has to many glitches, the moderator is also a player and they are sometimes bullies and have so many resources that you can’t go one on one with them. The last game I played, and still playing, the moderator vanishes his troops, airplanes or armada and then appears in another place, or attacks you and you can’t defend yourself because your troops, planes or armada can’t see the target, and when you see it they are not where you sent your units to defend your territory. You can msg they administrators, but they don’t respond to your msgs. The resources are not equal in all the countries and I understand that they are looking to sell you gold to make money, but it should be more equitable. So if you have lots of money you maybe able to win this game, if not forget it. Lots of people sing up in countries that have great resources and then don’t play, they just accumulate things but don’t respond to your msgs, don’t help defend their own territories, don’t move at all. My recommendation, don’t play this game. I give them 2 stars out of 5.